Khenbish had a strong admiration, almost envy, for the Miya and the way they served the Empire. Being a cartographer, or even a herald, would have suited his nature perfectly. He studied the maps closely, in awe of the history.

Khenbish lets out a small chuckle at the Scorpions' ridiculous reaction to his mon. "I appreciate your candor and good humor, Bayushi-san. And please, in your position as my advisor, I encourage you to always speak freely to me; it can only do me good." The Unicorn turns to his newly assigned yojimbo, "That goes for you as well, Yasuki-san. I am in no position to turn away free advice." Addressing Katsu again, "It has been made clear that the position of castellan was one others found undesirous. No doubt there are political machinations I'm not yet privy to. If you have further insights, please share. Why would the Scorpion rather a Dragon or Phoenix not be castellan? And perhaps more curiously, why would the Phoenix and Dragon themselves not wish for the position?" Khenbish nods appreciatively at the attendant and accepts the sheaf of scrolls for his review. He gives Katsu and Keigonin opportunities to speak before reviewing the orders.

"Bayushi-san, I want to thank you for supporting my bid for castellan. I'm sure my new yojimbo would like to thank you for supporting him as well. Though honored, I'm perhaps a little confused. I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting before. To what do I owe your support? If your motivation was simply to block someone else from the appointment, please feel free to speak freely. I wouldn't hold it against you."

Khenbish tries to set aside the customs of Khanbulak, which come to him so naturally, and instead follows the norms of the rest of the Rokugan, as best he remembers them. He accepts the sode and chop seal as graciously as he knows how. He speaks humbly and thanks the Emerald Champion on behalf of everyone assigned to the castle for the opportunity to serve the Emperor. He also drops a comment about how the strength of the Imperial Legion is that the different clans set aside their differences and combine their individual strengths to become something greater than the sum of their parts. It's meant to be equal parts inspirational, aspirational, and subtly pleading of the other samurai.

Khenbish tries to appear calm and confident, but he feels the weight of the room's attention. So much has happened, and he's still sorting through the emotions. He's cautiously hopeful and proud, but also wary of the many mysteries still surrounding the outpost. He internally resolves himself to be equal to whatever challenges the posting presents as he steps forward.

"I applaud our senior gunso-to-be on his taste. I too have been impressed by Matsu Tomuko-san. If she is the warrior you have heard her to be, then as commander of the army, I must request she be appointed as my yojimbo. But I am eager to hear from the Lion contingent on their thoughts on the matter. They have perhaps better insight than any of us as to where Tomuko's gifts might best serve the Emperor."

In contrast to his impassioned speech seeking the castellan position, Khenbish is now more humbly accepting the gracious generosity of the Scorpion. He publicly thanks Katsu for the support and says he hopes the re-establishment of Shiro Damebare can be the beginning of many new friendships.

These are super cool! I love the Minor Clans, so I have a tendency to bring them into my games. I am probably looking right past it, but... Are there Minor Clan bonuses listed somewhere? Or major family bonuses, like for the Usagi?

I appreciate that no metaphor is perfect, but since this is the one we're running with... The "electric ukulele & vuvuzela funk tune" class that this culinary institute offers doesn't consider the course any more an elective than any other course they offer. In fact, it's part of your fastest route to learning more advanced cooking techniques. I think that's part of why it seems strange that it isn't offered to master chefs when almost every other course is. I thought it was fun to try out the idea of school curricula, if only because it's fun to explore new mechanics, but for what it's worth @MB -Fr-, I agree with you that they don't totally make sense. I think there might be some limited instances where there's a logical shift in theme. Something like, "We want all of our students to be soldiers, but the ones that excel, we train to be generals." But I'm skeptical that that kind of thinking motivates four shifts in each school's curriculum. I'll use Shinjo Outrider as an example, just because it's what I'm playing now. I think in design they thought, "We want this class to be passionate socially and also emphasize mobility, so we'll give them all fire shuji, water-based kata, and some moderate water shuji access." When you look at what the class offers over the course of 5 or 6 ranks, it makes sense. But when you have to justify the shift between each rank, it starts to fall apart. In practice, the experience is a little like, "We want all of our students to have exposure to earth shuji (and specifically earth shuji) before giving them access to training in most basic kata, but once they're ready to start learning kata, we'll never teach them earth shuji again." I think you'd be hard-pressed to justify most shifts in curriculum at each rank. If you reach enough, you can probably find some justification for any mechanical limitation, but I think the tail ends up wagging the dog. Instead of telling whatever story you want to tell and having mechanics that support it, you're bending the narrative a bit to justify the mechanics you're stuck with. My experience so far is that this doesn't support the player experience, even when they're playing to type (like a Sun Sentinel wanting more fire invocations).